When planting crops, typically a seed bed is formed by loosening the soil with some sort of tillage equipment and then planting the crops so that once they germinate and begin to grow, they can easily pass through the loosened soi1 and from there they can grow into maturity. It happens from time to time, however, that once the seeds are planted and before they emerge through to top of the soil, that the soil becomes extremely wet, such as from a rain, and then is baked into a hard crust by the sun. If this crust is hard enough, the plants cannot penetrate it and they die or are impeded in their growth so much that they cannot produce at top efficiency in a limited growing cycle.
Often when this crust forms, some of the plants make it through the crust but others do not, resulting in a very poor stand of crops. The farmer then needs to decide whether to reseed the entire area affected, resulting in more expense and a more limited growing season, or to accept the lower yield from having less than a full stand of plants. Another alternative is to pull a harrow or the like over the surface affected to loosen the crust. A major problem with using a harrow or the like to loosen the soil is that such implements tend to tear up and destroy or severely damage the small plants as they go through the soil. Furthermore, these implements tend to carry weeds and plants with them as they pass through the field. So there is a danger that more damage could be done to the small plants and seeds in this process than good from loosening the crust.
Consequently, there is a need for an apparatus for solving the aforementioned problem of loosening the crust formed in the soil over planted seeds without having the major disadvantages referred to above.